Ella is 19 months old today!

Ella is 19 months old today! Ella's vocabulary has grown so much. She loves trying to say new words, or learn what something is called. It seems like she's quizzing us, asking "this?" over and over again, pointing to new objects. She has new alphabet magnets for the refrigerator, and will even sing parts of her ABCs. She is learning her colors and particularly loves to say "yellow".

Lately she has been so active, and really loves going to playgrounds (which she gets to do at school a lot) and playing in the yard.

She has been practicing how to do a somersault, and loves to run around with Griffin. She especially loves to be chased and tickled or swung around in circles. She is always asking for more tickles, more swinging, more running and chasing, more singing, more dancing...more, more, more! We love playing with our little cutie. It seems though that Ella has taken a slight turn into the land of "NO", and will emphatically tell us "no", when we're not used to that word coming out of her mouth! Although she likes to say "no" a lot now, she also has become even more affectionate, and will say "hug" and flop onto us for a wonderful hug, or will say "kiss" and pucker up her little lips - so incredibly sweet. We love our little girl!

Ella November 2010 - 1 year ago!

Happy Halloween!

Ella had fun dressing up as a cowgirl today, with Griffin as her horse (complete with saddle and reins). We enjoyed being in a Halloween parade with Ella's friend Susanna, and we even visited a few neighbors for some trick-or-treating before bed. Ella loved seeing all of the other kids' costumes, especially Susanna the Owl, a duck, and a giraffe.

Ella is 18 months old today!

Another month has gone by and Ella is really growing into a wonderful little girl. Ella has started combining words into two-word phrases, and just this morning Jamus told Ella to say "Hi Mommy, I love you", and she did! We were pretty impressed.

We also started up a music class with Ella's best friend Susanna. We had done this in the spring, and Ella liked it, but now she is really into it, dancing and playing with the musical instruments. She loves the songs from the class, and that's pretty much all we can listen to now while we're in the car with her. The class has been a lot of fun for both of us.

This month we went on a family vacation to San Diego, CA. Jamus had a conference for a few days, so we decided to extend the trip and make a vacation out of it. Jamus and I were both pretty nervous about our 5.5 hour direct flights, but Ella was once again a trooper with the airplane. She loves talking about how the airplane goes "up up up" in the air. We spent time both in La Jolla and San Diego. La Jolla was a gorgeous little town with an amazing rocky coastline and tons and tons of seals.

In fact, there is a beach called children's beach, where a large concrete wall was built to create a cove where children would be safe from the waves. The seals have since taken over the beach, and it's a lot of fun to go watch them laying on the beach, and swimming in the water. Ella loved watching them and trying to imitate their sounds. We also spent two days at Sea World, which we all loved.

The exhibits are really amazing. We spent a lot of time staring at fish swimming around, and Ella particularly enjoyed the sea turtles. She would request to see the "tu-tul"(s) over and over again. The very most exciting part about Sea World though,

is that there is an area with Sesame Street characters, rides, and play areas. Ella got to meet Elmo, who she adores.

She loves to talk about meeting Elmo, and you can really see the wheels turning in her head, remembering the moment - so cute!

There are some really great tidal pools in San Diego, and we spent a good portion of one day exploring the sea life, and looking at shells. Although we loved our trip, we were happy to get back to the comfort of our home. It was nice to have a home-cooked meal instead of going out (I never thought I'd say that!).

Ella is 17 months old!

Ella is now 17 months old! Since last month, she has transitioned into her toddler room at school, so has new teachers, and also a big girl backpack. She walks into the classroom all by herself, and is very proud of how big she is.

This month, Ella went on her first airplane ride. We prepared for the trip with plenty of DVDs, stickers, and coloring books. She ended up sleeping a little on both flights, and was overall very good. We have a much longer flight coming up at the end of the month, so that will be the true test!

Our trip was to Texas for a wedding of a friend of ours. Ella really did have a lot of fun. She got to see her Auntie Molly, got her first pair of cowboy boots, and danced way past her bedtime at the wedding reception. We're pretty sure in the picture below, she's trying to do the worm!

Cowboy boots!

Chillin' like a cool girl in her new boots.

Blowing off a little steam before her first airplane ride.

Trying to figure out the TV remote with her mini-sized towel on (a hand towel!).

Doing the worm!

Feeding herself yogurt like a big girl!

Swimming with Daddy.

Ella is 16 months old today!

Ella has been keeping us on our toes lately. It seems like she is always getting into some sort of mischief, and it makes me realize that it is absolutely impossible to completely "baby-proof" a house.

This morning she pulled the pin from the hinge on her closet door, and also was obsessed with digging in the wastebasket in the bathroom. Maybe we need to get her a few new toys to distract her.We did get a little table and chair set for her, and she has been coloring with crayons. She has a very clear preference for the yellow and green crayons, and is always holding on to the same three all at once.

She has also learned about stickers, and loves to put them just about any, and everywhere.

We find little stickers of puppies and kittens in the most bizarre places.

The other day, poor Griffin had one stuck in his paw fur, and Ella was desperately trying to get it out. He patiently waited for her - he's so tolerant.

Ella has been trying to mimic a lot of her words, and sometimes she'll say a word so clearly, but then, she won't be able to repeat it again. She does like to make animal sounds, and can identify many animals, and make her best effort at their animal noise. She particularly loves quacking like a duck, and barking like a dog.

Ella's first kiss!

Early last week we went to the NJ shore with friends Sarah, Wes, London and Laura. Ella and London loved playing in the sand and dipping their toes into the water. We brought Ella's baby pool for the two of them to be able to splash in the water without the big waves. Little did we know this would be where Ella would get her first kiss! I love how London looks so pleased with himself after each kiss. Ella is not so sure...

Little Gymnast

This morning Ella was standing in the hallway and slowly started letting her feet slide apart, which she thought was pretty cool and fun. We told her that is "doing a split" and she now does it on command!

Ella is 15 months old!

Ella is getting to be such a big girl! In the past month, she has started "dancing" to music, and it's really adorable to see the moves she comes up with! She loves listening to music at mealtime, and bops her head from side to side. We also love dancing for her because she thinks our moves are hilarious, and we just love hearing her little giggle.

With all of the potted flowers around the house, she's learned how to smell the flowers. She knows that the pattern on some of our rugs are flowers, and she will get down on the ground to try to smell them. Every morning when we say goodbye to Jamus on the side porch, she is now preoccupied with her flowers, and must smell them before waving 'buh-bye' (which she also says) to Daddy.

We continue on with the hot summer weather,

and are still enjoying her swimming pool, as well as a new sprinkler. Ella has recently started to enjoy eating ice cream (she used to spit it out!), so we've been frequenting our local Yardley Ice House for tasty treats quite often.

Ella has her 15 month appointment on Friday, and hopefully all of that ice cream will have helped our skinny little girl to pack on a few more pounds! :)

Singing and Dancing

Ella is 14 months old today!

Ella is 14 months old! This little girl (certainly by no means a baby anymore!) is developing such a sweet and wonderful personality. She definitely keeps us busy, chasing her around the house. We have installed three (!!!) new baby gates because we just can't keep up with her energy level. This way we can keep her a little more contained, and we don't have to worry as much about what sort of mischief she is getting herself into. She loves going into our bathroom drawer to find her toothbrush, and "brushes" her (eight) teeth countless times every day.

She still absolutely loves her books, and always wants another one read. We got her first Scholastic book club order form the other day from daycare. I can't wait to have more books to read with her.

We've been spending a lot of time lately outside in her baby pool, which she really enjoys. She splashes in the water, and loves to run around the back yard. Unfortunately, she did get her first bee sting on her foot while running around outside barefoot the other day. Poor baby.

Ella continually amazes us lately with her level of comprehension, and how well she can follow directions. She can go get her toothbrush when asked, or put it away. She will get a book for us to read from her shelf when we tell her she can have one more. She recognizes songs, and has favorites already. She even remembers the order of songs on her favorite CD, and starts singing certain ones before they begin. Her brain must be like a sponge at this point. It seems like her knowledge of vocabulary grows exponentially by the day.

Ella especially loves to imitate animal noises, and is so proud of herself, and thinks it's funny when she does. Griffin is still her best friend. He can always make her laugh, and doesn't need to do much to prompt those adorable giggles. The other day she was putting her birthday hat on him, which she thought was absolutely hilarious. He is always a good sport about her silliness.

We've started to put her hair into pigtails because it was really starting to hang down into her eyes, and I think she looks utterly adorable!

Below is a picture of Ella exactly one year ago at two months old. What an amazing difference a year makes!

Ella is 13 months old today!

Ella has become so much more comfortable on her feet in the past couple of weeks. She can easily walk across a room, or across our backyard without falling.She still does a little bit of the "Frankenstein" walk, but is starting to bend her knees more to really pick those feet up off of the ground.

If you saw the video below, you know that she can say "woof" when asked what a dog says, and she can also really YELL it too! She must have been having a conversation with the neighbor's dog the other day, shouting "WOOF" over at him. She's knows how to say "quack" for a duck. She can say "yeah", but always says it three times, because that's how it is in a song she listens to. She also knows how to say "NO", but usually only says it if she's doing something she shouldn't be doing, not quite at the point where she says "no" to us. She just found her belly button, and thinks it's strange and funny.

We (finally) installed a baby gate at the top of the stairs, so now I don't have to be constantly chasing her around (thank goodness, that was tiring!), and she has a little bit more freedom to explore, which she loves.

In the morning she'll wander off with Griffin for a while, and they'll play, and then come back with a toy to show us. They are really best friends - so cute! Now that the weather is nice, we've been spending a lot of time outdoors, either in our yard, or going for walks or bike rides. Ella got a bike seat that is attached to Jay's bike, and she has so much fun. She wears her sunglasses and helmet without trying to pull them off. She especially loves that her helmet has bunnies all over it. When we're in the yard, she loves to pick at the grass and clover, or she'll find leaves to try to feed to Griffin. He always humors her and grabs the leaves, then spits them out.

Woof woof!

Happy Easter!

Ella had lots of fun on her very first Easter searching for eggs in our backyard. She especially loved pulling all of the fake grass out of her basket.

Below is a video of Ella telling us how to spell her name. I think she actually gets it right at about 37 seconds.

Ella is 1 year old today!!!

Ella is one year old today! It's so hard to believe that a year has passed since her birth. So much has changed in our lives, and she has brought us a tremendous amount of joy. I cannot imagine my life without her anymore.

She has gone from this tiny little newborn to a little girl with a wonderful personality. She is sweet and loving, giving kisses, hugs, and "pat-pat" to us, her stuffed animals, and her books. She especially loves monkeys, bunnies, and puppies. I could

not be a luckier mommy!

This weekend, Ella had her first try at birthday cake. She had her own little cake to

have her way with, and just sort of picked at the icing. She wasn't as enthusiastic about it as I would have expected, and a little while later, got sick - I'm sure it was way more sugar than she is used to having. She did however, love all of the balloons and presents!

Today for her birthday, we went to the Philadelphia Zoo, and she LOVED it! She got to see gorillas, lions, bunnies, ducks, tigers, and many more animals. She had her eyes wide in amazement the entire time. For her birthday we got a season's pass to the zoo, so we'll be taking her back to visit often.